Virgin Mobile reports 30 percent growth in data

MVNO Virgin Mobile USA is starting to see strong growth in data services. The MVNO yesterday reported that its third quarter data revenue had increased 30 percent year over year. The company attributed that growth to its expanded messaging products, the strong uptake of its new Wildcard handset, which offers a full QWERTY keyboard, and its alliances with social networking sites such as Facebook and Yahoo!

The company's innovative Sugar Mama advertising program--where customers earn airtime minutes by viewing advertisements--has attracted 500,000 customers as of the end of third quarter.

In other key metrics, Virgin reported 760,000 gross adds for the quarter and 46,000 net adds. It's total subscriber base now tops 4.9 million. Average revenue per user is $20.59, up from $20.53 in second quarter. Churn is 4.9 percent.

See this press release for more details.

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